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There’s obviously a lot of people who like playing games in a more mobile format, as evidenced by the huge popularity of the Switch Lite / mobile gaming. Givin

by ketzo 5y ago

There’s obviously a lot of people who like playing games in a more mobile format, as evidenced by the huge popularity of the Switch Lite / mobile gaming. Giving the PC games market access to that form factor seems, on its face, like an extremely good move. But we’ve seen products like this before — the NVIDIA Shield, for one. Pretty cool piece of tech, but didn’t exactly start a revolution. I guess the question becomes “what percentage of current PC gamers are motivated to shell out $400 to play on the train?” Frankly, I feel like it’s probably a decent number of people? Enough for this product to do okay, if not change the whole market. But people have been very confidently incorrect about almost every iteration of mobile gaming in the past. I guess we’ll see.

goda90 5y ago
The Shield was Android with GameStream. This will run games directly on x86 Linux which, with all their Proton work, will result in a much bigger game library out of the box. There have been more niche handheld x86 devices, but they were even more money, and different form factors. Steam being as big as it is, I think this has way more potential than anything done before.
wayoutthere 5y ago
This is different than the NVidia Shield handheld in that hardware has come a loooong way since 2013 and it’s actually possible to run modern AAA games at 1200x800 using what is effectively a mobile chipset. No streaming from a PC required. If I played more games I would absolutely buy one of these. I already own the NVidia Shield that plugs into your TV because it’s a great streaming box even if you ignore the gaming aspect.
caslon 5y ago
You have to consider that PC hardware is currently spiraling out of control in terms of price, and $400 for the specs it has presently is a fairly decent buy even if you don't care about the form factor.
- ketzo 5y ago
  That’s a really good point, viewing this as an accessibly-priced entry into PC gaming makes it even more attractive.
  - Ancapistani 5y ago
    If current trends around availability of discrete desktop graphics cards hold out, then it'll be even more attractive.
- libertine 5y ago
  PC hardware prices will affect this as well, since this is based on shortages and high demand... basically these will be almost impossible to get outside of secondary market.
  - caslon 5y ago
    I'm calling it now, people looking back on this thread six months or a year from now will have found your speculation false.
    - libertine 5y ago
      I gain/lose nothing for being right/wrong, it's just the status quo. I'm waiting to buy a laptop I want for some months now, still not available. Unless this custom APU for Steam Deck is made in a special foundry with a special process, then they will be in line just like everyone else. Plus scalpers love this shortage to make easy money.
  - anoraca 5y ago
    You don't think that Valve was waiting until the supply chain was ready before making this announcement?
    - libertine 5y ago
      You think Sony Computer Entertainment didn't wait until the supply chain was ready before launching the PS5? It's not about being ready or not, it's about supply and demand. An example from Valve themselves from early this year regarding Index, an interview with Gabe: “We actually have components that are manufactured in Wuhan and when you’re setting up your manufacturing lines it doesn’t occur to you that you’re suddenly going to be dependent on this peculiar transistor that’s sitting on one board that you can’t get,” Newell said. “Everybody ended up running into the same problem simultaneously — you go from, ‘Oh, we’re in great shape,’ to, ‘What do you mean Apple or Microsoft just bought the next two years’ supply of this just so they could make sure they aren’t going to run out?’ You went from a situation where everything was getting done just in time to people buying up all the available supplies.” Newell says these constraints are also why the headset still doesn’t ship to some markets like New Zealand or Australia. “The only thing keeping us from shipping in New Zealand at this point is just getting enough of them made — we’re very much manufacturing constrained.” [1] https://uploadvr.com/gabe-newell-index-supply-shortage/ https://uploadvr.com/gabe-newell-index-supply-shortage/
GavinMcG 5y ago
I'm willing to shell out so that I don't have to buy all the games I already paid for.
calgoo 5y ago
It’s more less the same price as Nintendo switch and the switch is limited to expensive Nintendo games. Now if you are a fan of Nintendo games, great! But if you are a of gamer then this steam deck sound like a better idea!
danso 5y ago
Had to google what you meant by NVIDIA Shield (wrt portable gaming): https://www.amazon.com/NVIDIA-SHIELD-Portable-pc/dp/B00E3667XQ https://www.amazon.com/NVIDIA-SHIELD-Portable-pc/dp/B00E3667... One major difference (besides the form-factor obviously) is that the Deck doesn't require WiFi + desktop to play your PC games. I'd also argue that the trackpads will be a major difference. The Steam Controller's trackpad wasn't perfect, but it made possible to sanely play a ton of designed-for-mouse games
- awill 5y ago
  The Nvidia Shield ran Android. So either bad Android games locally, os streaming. The Shield might do better today as a client just for Stadia, Xcloud or PS Now. However, this is far better. Not only are the specs very impressive for the size/power, but it runs an OS that can plan anything (with Proton). It's like mixing the switch with a ps4. Imagine playing the Witcher 3, or Doom Eternal on this compared to the 480p blurry Switch version. I hope this does well.
romwell 5y ago
>I guess the question becomes “what percentage of current PC gamers are motivated to shell out $400 to play on the train?” Yup. Before clicking the "Reserve" link, I put a personal threshold for this thing at $300. If it was somewhere around that, it'd be an instant purchase for me. Over $500 for a version with barely acceptable (by 2021 standards) storage? No thank you. The 64GB version is almost a made-for-landfill device. I can't imagine people not running out of space very, very fast (even with microSD card slot, which we may or may not be able to install games onto: I wish they made it clear in the specs). Still, for $300, it'd be an instant buy for me - just to be able to play in bed. I really hope enough people buy this thing, because I'd really want it to thrive - and the price to drop :)
- ehnto 5y ago
  Most blockbuster games are over 64gb on their own these days. You couldn't install just one of: GTA5, Red Dead Redeption 2, Cyberpunk 2077, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Forza Motorsport/Horizon, Fallout 4, the list goes on. At least Todd Howard can't sell Skyrim yet another time, it's already in my steam library.
  - jeofken 5y ago
    Any game devs here willing to share how large the code/compiled code output is for these games?
    - jazzyjackson 5y ago
      You mean code without resources? The required storage is listed on the steam store page, Cyberpunk for instance requires 70 GB free.
      - jeofken 5y ago
        Yeah - the actual “meat” of games of this scale, I guess most of that is video and texture images or similar
d7e7eyeudi 5y ago
Personally I find a lot of these devices backwards minded. I'd much rather just shell out for a service like Stadia (if the catalogue was larger) and turn my actual mobile device into something capable of playing pc titles. Especially if the implementation is platform agnostic like Stadia. Gaming devices of all stripes have become expensive enough that I'm more than happy to see cloud gaming takeover and leave hardware for the activists and bitcoin miners.
- ehnto 5y ago
  Your phone lacks the controller interfaces these devices have though. I guess it depends on if you can hook up a controller to your phone, or if you're able to play the games you like without to much fuss on your phone screen.
  - what_ever 5y ago
    You can attach your phone to a Stadia controller. Disc: Googler.
  - d7e7eyeudi 5y ago
    Matter of taste. A pc gamer will hate a mobile control scheme but I can play Cyberpunk fine on my S10 with the touch controller and if it had even the level of customization that CoD Mobile or Pubg Mobile offer the player I'd go so far as to say I could be happily comfortable. Imo, people underestimate both how poor the quality offerings are on mobile and how far ui control design has come (in the few top tier offerings that exist). Cloud gaming kills two birds with one stone in that it suddenly adds a plethora of games to mobile that are good in the real way while simultaneously mitigating the mounting costs of being a pc gamer (maybe consoles too but I can't speak to them) by letting me run high-end games on average hardware so long as I have a good internet connection.
    - grawprog 5y ago
      I tried pubg mobile and a few other mobile FPS games. There's one major flaw with using a touchscreen for those kinds of games, you need to be able to aim, move and shoot at the same time. In my experience, touchscreens only allow you to do two of those things at the same time.
dageshi 5y ago
It's interesting timing because the Switch Oled edition was just announced with no bump in power. So if you want a capable handheld with access too all the indies which will play games much better than your switch... here you go. And you can still keep your switch for nintendo exclusives because they've just made it clear that they're not upgrading the switch in a worthwhile way for at least a year. I would say this is squarely aimed at the existing switch customer base.
- Hamuko 5y ago
  The Switch power bump would've probably only made sense in 4K docked gaming anyways, and people are probably not going to buy one of these for docked gameplay.
  - novok 5y ago
    The biggest disappointment in the new switch is the lack of native bluetooth audio headphone support and becoming less picky about its hdmi travel adapters and chargers
- justapassenger 5y ago
  > I would say this is squarely aimed at the existing switch customer base. PC gamers and steam gamers are often very different markets. Nintendo, for decades now, was about fun, not power. I'm casual gamer, just for fun, and steam deck, while super cool, is certainly not going to replacement my switch.
  - dageshi 5y ago
    An awful lot of indie games release on PC and Switch nowadays, really the switch supplanted xbox and ps in terms of where a lot of indie games sell. So certainly a lot of switch owners are playing indie games that they could be playing on this device with better performance.
  - izacus 5y ago
    That's great, but "Nintendo not being about power" doesn't change the fact that many of my 40$+ Switch games barely run on the device and run at such low resolutions that it feel like looking through an oily glass. Seems like something is very wrong with either Switch hardware performance or Nintendo quality control.
reaperducer 5y ago
But we’ve seen products like this before — the NVIDIA Shield, for one Atari Lynx. Sony PSP. Sony Vita. Nintendo Switch. Any others I don't remember?
- ehnto 5y ago
  The inimitable Nokia Ngage!
- Bellyache5 5y ago
  Sega Nomad. Sega GameGear.
  - mastrsushi 5y ago
    Hey, with the right set cargo pants you can carry as many batteries as you want!
libertine 5y ago
>But we’ve seen products like this before — the NVIDIA Shield, for one. Pretty cool piece of tech, but didn’t exactly start a revolution. People forget that these devices without marketing and consistency they won't go far. Nintendo, Sony, even MS that came later to the party have hundreds (if not thousands) of millions poured to build their brands, over decades... Sega knew how to play this game and still didn't manage to hang on... They are already taking the crops of nostalgia, that's for how long they have been around. Leveraging these devices base on hardware it's nothing in the great scheme of things.
- irq 5y ago
  > Sega knew how to play this game and still didn't manage to hang on... I see what you did there :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hang-On https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hang-On
  - libertine 5y ago
    Honestly wasn't with that intent, but thank you for point this out - won't forget it and will use it in the future!
- fendy3002 5y ago
  > People forget that these devices without marketing and consistency they won't go far. But seeing Valve's track record, marketing isn't their strong point too.
Ancapistani 5y ago
> I guess the question becomes “what percentage of current PC gamers are motivated to shell out $400 to play on the train?” At first glance at least, it seems like it may end up being much more than that. I see appeal here for non-gamers as well - or at least, for people who aren't only or even primarily gamers. It's a very nice cyberdeck for general use, though granted it doesn't have a hardware keyboard. Given the size and form factor any keyboard they'd tried to graft on the thing would be basically unusable anyhow so I'm glad they didn't try. I can totally see myself picking one of these up and throwing it in my bag alongside a small Bluetooth mechanical keyboard. For working in coffee shops in a terminal it'd be just fine. Connect it up to a TV via Chromecast or something and you've got a damned nice setup for less than a grand.
- novok 5y ago
  Id just want a smaller laptop at that point then? I find its really hard to beat the convertible laptop form factor in general
  - fendy3002 5y ago
    It is a laptop with less than 1kg in weight, with embedded controller support and touchscreen. Now if it can somehow act as wacom tablet I'll instantly buy it, though it may be not the case.
    - novok 5y ago
      The extra keyboard is going to add a bunch of weight, probably more weight in total than something like the x1 carbon with a bigger screen and battery that weighs 1.13kg. I call it the ipad effect, where an ipad + keyboard of the same size ends up being heavier than a laptop of the same size. Convertibles also tend to have a touch screen and pen support too. I find the 7" form factor only good for personal usage, if you want to play a multiplayer game on it, it's too tiny usually.
rkido 5y ago
The mere fact that NVIDIA Shield Portable didn't take off doesn't tell us much. It had poor design sensibility (i.e. it looked like ass, like some kind of portable Xbox designed in the early 2000s), and it ran Android, which lacks a compelling games library. Steam Deck at least stands a chance, although I'm worried about the weight and the battery life.
- rchaud 5y ago
  The battery life is a straight up lie. 8 hours on a single battery charge? What game were they testing, Solitaire?
  - abdulmuhaimin 5y ago
    2-8hours. If it can do low-resource gaming for 8 hours, its not lie. And honestly, thats not something too far-fetch. The only one lying here is you, since its not even released yet for you to test the claim. Not to mention how you conveniently left out "2-" from the battery life range What? Did you expect to run Cyberpunk 2027 for 8 hours on single charge this machine?
riffraff 5y ago
I wonder how really portable this thing is; it has PC hardware, a screen and a small factor in which to stick batteries: how long will the battery last?
matt_s 5y ago
I think a better question is will games traditionally built for PC's hold up on a mobile device? Mostly I'm thinking about controller vs keyboard+mouse. Typically you have more controls available on PC and when I play the same game on PC I am complete garbage at it because I'm used to controller, maybe I'm too old though.
- usrusr 5y ago
  Valve has been pushing their Steam Controller for quite some time now, it sits squarely in the no man's land between clear success and total failure. The core audience of this new product will know quite well what to expect.
- mywittyname 5y ago
  The videos on the site show people playing Doom Eternal (FPS), Crusader Kings III (4x strategy game), Balder's Gate (top down RPG), and Disco Elysium (point-and-click adventure game). It looks playable to me. Plus it natively supports "mouse" controls via a few input methods: thumb touch screens and tilt-o-whorl. And if neither of those work, you can use a bluetooth mouse/keyboard.
dorchadas 5y ago
I'm absolutely in the market for this. I'm fixing to move six time zones from my friends, who all play. Instead of buying a gaming laptop to take with me I'd just buy this if it's let me play with the easily.
usrusr 5y ago
> I guess the question becomes “what percentage of current PC gamers are motivated to shell out $400 to play on the train?” Does it even matter? For consumers, they get what they paid for even if Valve shows zero commitment as long as Steam does not actively shut them out. For game companies, support for controller and Linux/Proton is valuable with or without Steam Deck. And for Valve itself, all the software investment is a long term hedge against the existential threat of Windows failing them, this is just an opportunistic bonus use. The only actual cost is the hardware side of the project. If it tanks in the market they'll simply refrain from doing a v2 and do damage control with long tail sales of v1. While taking comfort in knowing that the Deck hardware will at least have lured a few game companies into the arms of Proton, strengthening their Windows hedge.
pier25 5y ago
> the NVIDIA Shield, for one. Pretty cool piece of tech, but didn’t exactly start a revolution Other than emulators, Android is a barren land for good controller based games. Specially compared to Steam.
pinkythepig 5y ago
This has so much more potential because its a desktop OS. You could e.g. play WoW using this. Not to mention the huge selection from emulators. I've tried gaming with Android before and the game selection is awful. Realistically, the only good gaming options are from e.g. snes emulators. On top of that, most phone GPU drivers are horrendously broken when doing advanced 3d stuff so even if a good game was released for android, you wouldn't be able to play it on 80% of phones.
asah 5y ago
I for one love my Shield and would upgrade / buy again - real-time upscaling/upmixing makes YouTube into a competitive "channel" I regularly watch on my 4K TV. The shield runs all the major streaming networks and there's now Airplay apps that run in the background, closing that gap. As with all chrome-based devices, the Google voice assistant blows away AppleTV and Roku.
Rapzid 5y ago
This is my feeling. Money is no problem for me, but I'm not immune to purchasing stuff I don't end up using. So I'm cautious about that and I'm sitting here wondering about the value. Say, the $650 model. On one hand it would be nice to have my Steam games on a portable without having to double-purchase(a problem ATM with Switch, on top of the higher typical costs of those games on eShop). But I have the Switch and Switch Lite already which plays Nintendo exclusives. Honestly it's nice to get a break and dip into a catalogue that's not on my PC when I'm on the go. And I'm 100% not going to take two portables with me anywhere. Then there is the cost. $650 for me would be better spent toward a PS5 if I could get my hands on one. I like the Sony exclusives(GoW, Last of Us, etc) and would really like to play Returnal.. Though it will probably go cross-platform before I ever see a PS5 with my own eyes. The more I think about it's price point and value to me the more I get the Shield vibes, and the more impressive it is how well Nintendo knows their customers and rides a very fine line with their product placement. Edit: As an added thought; I like to experience certain games, shows, and movies in a very controlled environment. I won't play/watch them on-the-go.
- ideamotor 5y ago
  I view this as more of a tinker device. They’ve stated you can install anything on it. I just know I haven’t regretting buying the steam link or controller, so I may give this a go.
- MayeulC 5y ago
  When comparing value with the switch, factor in: 1) Nintendo switch game prices 2) The size of your existing PC-compatible library (including emulators). That drastically changes the value proposition to me.
baby 5y ago
I for one own a switch and has been waiting for a better quality product, I've also been looking to get a desktop gaming PC but the price + the space it takes has been putting me off for a long time. So this steam deck is an insta buy for me.
tomaskafka 5y ago
I believe it's more about gaming on sofa than gaming on train.
BatteryMountain 5y ago
I intend to buy and use it as a mobile workstation for programming, since it has a x86 chip, 16Gb Ram, Linux-compatible gfx chip, decent amount of storage. Basically this will fill the void left by the Nokia N900 for a lot of us. It being able to run steam/games is secondary for me. Or, if AMD would please get on with it and release a small form factor like the Intel Nuc, that would be great. But this device does have a screen attached to it and a battery, so it would work fine as a nuc for me. Super excited!

by ketzo 5y ago

goda90 5y ago

The Shield was Android with GameStream. This will run games directly on x86 Linux which, with all their Proton work, will result in a much bigger game library out of the box. There have been more niche handheld x86 devices, but they were even more money, and different form factors. Steam being as big as it is, I think this has way more potential than anything done before.

wayoutthere 5y ago

This is different than the NVidia Shield handheld in that hardware has come a loooong way since 2013 and it’s actually possible to run modern AAA games at 1200x800 using what is effectively a mobile chipset. No streaming from a PC required. If I played more games I would absolutely buy one of these. I already own the NVidia Shield that plugs into your TV because it’s a great streaming box even if you ignore the gaming aspect.

caslon 5y ago

You have to consider that PC hardware is currently spiraling out of control in terms of price, and $400 for the specs it has presently is a fairly decent buy even if you don't care about the form factor.

ketzo 5y ago
That’s a really good point, viewing this as an accessibly-priced entry into PC gaming makes it even more attractive.
- Ancapistani 5y ago
  If current trends around availability of discrete desktop graphics cards hold out, then it'll be even more attractive.
libertine 5y ago
PC hardware prices will affect this as well, since this is based on shortages and high demand... basically these will be almost impossible to get outside of secondary market.
- caslon 5y ago
  I'm calling it now, people looking back on this thread six months or a year from now will have found your speculation false.
  - libertine 5y ago
    I gain/lose nothing for being right/wrong, it's just the status quo. I'm waiting to buy a laptop I want for some months now, still not available. Unless this custom APU for Steam Deck is made in a special foundry with a special process, then they will be in line just like everyone else. Plus scalpers love this shortage to make easy money.
- anoraca 5y ago
  You don't think that Valve was waiting until the supply chain was ready before making this announcement?
  - libertine 5y ago
    You think Sony Computer Entertainment didn't wait until the supply chain was ready before launching the PS5? It's not about being ready or not, it's about supply and demand. An example from Valve themselves from early this year regarding Index, an interview with Gabe: “We actually have components that are manufactured in Wuhan and when you’re setting up your manufacturing lines it doesn’t occur to you that you’re suddenly going to be dependent on this peculiar transistor that’s sitting on one board that you can’t get,” Newell said. “Everybody ended up running into the same problem simultaneously — you go from, ‘Oh, we’re in great shape,’ to, ‘What do you mean Apple or Microsoft just bought the next two years’ supply of this just so they could make sure they aren’t going to run out?’ You went from a situation where everything was getting done just in time to people buying up all the available supplies.” Newell says these constraints are also why the headset still doesn’t ship to some markets like New Zealand or Australia. “The only thing keeping us from shipping in New Zealand at this point is just getting enough of them made — we’re very much manufacturing constrained.” [1] https://uploadvr.com/gabe-newell-index-supply-shortage/ https://uploadvr.com/gabe-newell-index-supply-shortage/

GavinMcG 5y ago

I'm willing to shell out so that I don't have to buy all the games I already paid for.

calgoo 5y ago

It’s more less the same price as Nintendo switch and the switch is limited to expensive Nintendo games. Now if you are a fan of Nintendo games, great! But if you are a of gamer then this steam deck sound like a better idea!

danso 5y ago

Had to google what you meant by NVIDIA Shield (wrt portable gaming): https://www.amazon.com/NVIDIA-SHIELD-Portable-pc/dp/B00E3667XQ https://www.amazon.com/NVIDIA-SHIELD-Portable-pc/dp/B00E3667... One major difference (besides the form-factor obviously) is that the Deck doesn't require WiFi + desktop to play your PC games. I'd also argue that the trackpads will be a major difference. The Steam Controller's trackpad wasn't perfect, but it made possible to sanely play a ton of designed-for-mouse games

awill 5y ago
The Nvidia Shield ran Android. So either bad Android games locally, os streaming. The Shield might do better today as a client just for Stadia, Xcloud or PS Now. However, this is far better. Not only are the specs very impressive for the size/power, but it runs an OS that can plan anything (with Proton). It's like mixing the switch with a ps4. Imagine playing the Witcher 3, or Doom Eternal on this compared to the 480p blurry Switch version. I hope this does well.

romwell 5y ago

>I guess the question becomes “what percentage of current PC gamers are motivated to shell out $400 to play on the train?” Yup. Before clicking the "Reserve" link, I put a personal threshold for this thing at $300. If it was somewhere around that, it'd be an instant purchase for me. Over $500 for a version with barely acceptable (by 2021 standards) storage? No thank you. The 64GB version is almost a made-for-landfill device. I can't imagine people not running out of space very, very fast (even with microSD card slot, which we may or may not be able to install games onto: I wish they made it clear in the specs). Still, for $300, it'd be an instant buy for me - just to be able to play in bed. I really hope enough people buy this thing, because I'd really want it to thrive - and the price to drop :)

ehnto 5y ago
Most blockbuster games are over 64gb on their own these days. You couldn't install just one of: GTA5, Red Dead Redeption 2, Cyberpunk 2077, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Forza Motorsport/Horizon, Fallout 4, the list goes on. At least Todd Howard can't sell Skyrim yet another time, it's already in my steam library.
- jeofken 5y ago
  Any game devs here willing to share how large the code/compiled code output is for these games?
  - jazzyjackson 5y ago
    You mean code without resources? The required storage is listed on the steam store page, Cyberpunk for instance requires 70 GB free.
    - jeofken 5y ago
      Yeah - the actual “meat” of games of this scale, I guess most of that is video and texture images or similar

d7e7eyeudi 5y ago

Personally I find a lot of these devices backwards minded. I'd much rather just shell out for a service like Stadia (if the catalogue was larger) and turn my actual mobile device into something capable of playing pc titles. Especially if the implementation is platform agnostic like Stadia. Gaming devices of all stripes have become expensive enough that I'm more than happy to see cloud gaming takeover and leave hardware for the activists and bitcoin miners.

ehnto 5y ago
Your phone lacks the controller interfaces these devices have though. I guess it depends on if you can hook up a controller to your phone, or if you're able to play the games you like without to much fuss on your phone screen.
- what_ever 5y ago
  You can attach your phone to a Stadia controller. Disc: Googler.
- d7e7eyeudi 5y ago
  Matter of taste. A pc gamer will hate a mobile control scheme but I can play Cyberpunk fine on my S10 with the touch controller and if it had even the level of customization that CoD Mobile or Pubg Mobile offer the player I'd go so far as to say I could be happily comfortable. Imo, people underestimate both how poor the quality offerings are on mobile and how far ui control design has come (in the few top tier offerings that exist). Cloud gaming kills two birds with one stone in that it suddenly adds a plethora of games to mobile that are good in the real way while simultaneously mitigating the mounting costs of being a pc gamer (maybe consoles too but I can't speak to them) by letting me run high-end games on average hardware so long as I have a good internet connection.
  - grawprog 5y ago
    I tried pubg mobile and a few other mobile FPS games. There's one major flaw with using a touchscreen for those kinds of games, you need to be able to aim, move and shoot at the same time. In my experience, touchscreens only allow you to do two of those things at the same time.

dageshi 5y ago

It's interesting timing because the Switch Oled edition was just announced with no bump in power. So if you want a capable handheld with access too all the indies which will play games much better than your switch... here you go. And you can still keep your switch for nintendo exclusives because they've just made it clear that they're not upgrading the switch in a worthwhile way for at least a year. I would say this is squarely aimed at the existing switch customer base.

Hamuko 5y ago
The Switch power bump would've probably only made sense in 4K docked gaming anyways, and people are probably not going to buy one of these for docked gameplay.
- novok 5y ago
  The biggest disappointment in the new switch is the lack of native bluetooth audio headphone support and becoming less picky about its hdmi travel adapters and chargers
justapassenger 5y ago
> I would say this is squarely aimed at the existing switch customer base. PC gamers and steam gamers are often very different markets. Nintendo, for decades now, was about fun, not power. I'm casual gamer, just for fun, and steam deck, while super cool, is certainly not going to replacement my switch.
- dageshi 5y ago
  An awful lot of indie games release on PC and Switch nowadays, really the switch supplanted xbox and ps in terms of where a lot of indie games sell. So certainly a lot of switch owners are playing indie games that they could be playing on this device with better performance.
- izacus 5y ago
  That's great, but "Nintendo not being about power" doesn't change the fact that many of my 40$+ Switch games barely run on the device and run at such low resolutions that it feel like looking through an oily glass. Seems like something is very wrong with either Switch hardware performance or Nintendo quality control.

reaperducer 5y ago

But we’ve seen products like this before — the NVIDIA Shield, for one Atari Lynx. Sony PSP. Sony Vita. Nintendo Switch. Any others I don't remember?

ehnto 5y ago
The inimitable Nokia Ngage!
Bellyache5 5y ago
Sega Nomad. Sega GameGear.
- mastrsushi 5y ago
  Hey, with the right set cargo pants you can carry as many batteries as you want!

libertine 5y ago

>But we’ve seen products like this before — the NVIDIA Shield, for one. Pretty cool piece of tech, but didn’t exactly start a revolution. People forget that these devices without marketing and consistency they won't go far. Nintendo, Sony, even MS that came later to the party have hundreds (if not thousands) of millions poured to build their brands, over decades... Sega knew how to play this game and still didn't manage to hang on... They are already taking the crops of nostalgia, that's for how long they have been around. Leveraging these devices base on hardware it's nothing in the great scheme of things.

irq 5y ago
> Sega knew how to play this game and still didn't manage to hang on... I see what you did there :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hang-On https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hang-On
- libertine 5y ago
  Honestly wasn't with that intent, but thank you for point this out - won't forget it and will use it in the future!
fendy3002 5y ago
> People forget that these devices without marketing and consistency they won't go far. But seeing Valve's track record, marketing isn't their strong point too.

Ancapistani 5y ago

> I guess the question becomes “what percentage of current PC gamers are motivated to shell out $400 to play on the train?” At first glance at least, it seems like it may end up being much more than that. I see appeal here for non-gamers as well - or at least, for people who aren't only or even primarily gamers. It's a very nice cyberdeck for general use, though granted it doesn't have a hardware keyboard. Given the size and form factor any keyboard they'd tried to graft on the thing would be basically unusable anyhow so I'm glad they didn't try. I can totally see myself picking one of these up and throwing it in my bag alongside a small Bluetooth mechanical keyboard. For working in coffee shops in a terminal it'd be just fine. Connect it up to a TV via Chromecast or something and you've got a damned nice setup for less than a grand.

novok 5y ago
Id just want a smaller laptop at that point then? I find its really hard to beat the convertible laptop form factor in general
- fendy3002 5y ago
  It is a laptop with less than 1kg in weight, with embedded controller support and touchscreen. Now if it can somehow act as wacom tablet I'll instantly buy it, though it may be not the case.
  - novok 5y ago
    The extra keyboard is going to add a bunch of weight, probably more weight in total than something like the x1 carbon with a bigger screen and battery that weighs 1.13kg. I call it the ipad effect, where an ipad + keyboard of the same size ends up being heavier than a laptop of the same size. Convertibles also tend to have a touch screen and pen support too. I find the 7" form factor only good for personal usage, if you want to play a multiplayer game on it, it's too tiny usually.

rkido 5y ago

The mere fact that NVIDIA Shield Portable didn't take off doesn't tell us much. It had poor design sensibility (i.e. it looked like ass, like some kind of portable Xbox designed in the early 2000s), and it ran Android, which lacks a compelling games library. Steam Deck at least stands a chance, although I'm worried about the weight and the battery life.

rchaud 5y ago
The battery life is a straight up lie. 8 hours on a single battery charge? What game were they testing, Solitaire?
- abdulmuhaimin 5y ago
  2-8hours. If it can do low-resource gaming for 8 hours, its not lie. And honestly, thats not something too far-fetch. The only one lying here is you, since its not even released yet for you to test the claim. Not to mention how you conveniently left out "2-" from the battery life range What? Did you expect to run Cyberpunk 2027 for 8 hours on single charge this machine?

riffraff 5y ago

I wonder how really portable this thing is; it has PC hardware, a screen and a small factor in which to stick batteries: how long will the battery last?

matt_s 5y ago

I think a better question is will games traditionally built for PC's hold up on a mobile device? Mostly I'm thinking about controller vs keyboard+mouse. Typically you have more controls available on PC and when I play the same game on PC I am complete garbage at it because I'm used to controller, maybe I'm too old though.

usrusr 5y ago
Valve has been pushing their Steam Controller for quite some time now, it sits squarely in the no man's land between clear success and total failure. The core audience of this new product will know quite well what to expect.
mywittyname 5y ago
The videos on the site show people playing Doom Eternal (FPS), Crusader Kings III (4x strategy game), Balder's Gate (top down RPG), and Disco Elysium (point-and-click adventure game). It looks playable to me. Plus it natively supports "mouse" controls via a few input methods: thumb touch screens and tilt-o-whorl. And if neither of those work, you can use a bluetooth mouse/keyboard.

dorchadas 5y ago

I'm absolutely in the market for this. I'm fixing to move six time zones from my friends, who all play. Instead of buying a gaming laptop to take with me I'd just buy this if it's let me play with the easily.

usrusr 5y ago

> I guess the question becomes “what percentage of current PC gamers are motivated to shell out $400 to play on the train?” Does it even matter? For consumers, they get what they paid for even if Valve shows zero commitment as long as Steam does not actively shut them out. For game companies, support for controller and Linux/Proton is valuable with or without Steam Deck. And for Valve itself, all the software investment is a long term hedge against the existential threat of Windows failing them, this is just an opportunistic bonus use. The only actual cost is the hardware side of the project. If it tanks in the market they'll simply refrain from doing a v2 and do damage control with long tail sales of v1. While taking comfort in knowing that the Deck hardware will at least have lured a few game companies into the arms of Proton, strengthening their Windows hedge.

pier25 5y ago

> the NVIDIA Shield, for one. Pretty cool piece of tech, but didn’t exactly start a revolution Other than emulators, Android is a barren land for good controller based games. Specially compared to Steam.

pinkythepig 5y ago

This has so much more potential because its a desktop OS. You could e.g. play WoW using this. Not to mention the huge selection from emulators. I've tried gaming with Android before and the game selection is awful. Realistically, the only good gaming options are from e.g. snes emulators. On top of that, most phone GPU drivers are horrendously broken when doing advanced 3d stuff so even if a good game was released for android, you wouldn't be able to play it on 80% of phones.

asah 5y ago

I for one love my Shield and would upgrade / buy again - real-time upscaling/upmixing makes YouTube into a competitive "channel" I regularly watch on my 4K TV. The shield runs all the major streaming networks and there's now Airplay apps that run in the background, closing that gap. As with all chrome-based devices, the Google voice assistant blows away AppleTV and Roku.

Rapzid 5y ago

This is my feeling. Money is no problem for me, but I'm not immune to purchasing stuff I don't end up using. So I'm cautious about that and I'm sitting here wondering about the value. Say, the $650 model. On one hand it would be nice to have my Steam games on a portable without having to double-purchase(a problem ATM with Switch, on top of the higher typical costs of those games on eShop). But I have the Switch and Switch Lite already which plays Nintendo exclusives. Honestly it's nice to get a break and dip into a catalogue that's not on my PC when I'm on the go. And I'm 100% not going to take two portables with me anywhere. Then there is the cost. $650 for me would be better spent toward a PS5 if I could get my hands on one. I like the Sony exclusives(GoW, Last of Us, etc) and would really like to play Returnal.. Though it will probably go cross-platform before I ever see a PS5 with my own eyes. The more I think about it's price point and value to me the more I get the Shield vibes, and the more impressive it is how well Nintendo knows their customers and rides a very fine line with their product placement. Edit: As an added thought; I like to experience certain games, shows, and movies in a very controlled environment. I won't play/watch them on-the-go.

ideamotor 5y ago
I view this as more of a tinker device. They’ve stated you can install anything on it. I just know I haven’t regretting buying the steam link or controller, so I may give this a go.
MayeulC 5y ago
When comparing value with the switch, factor in: 1) Nintendo switch game prices 2) The size of your existing PC-compatible library (including emulators). That drastically changes the value proposition to me.

baby 5y ago

I for one own a switch and has been waiting for a better quality product, I've also been looking to get a desktop gaming PC but the price + the space it takes has been putting me off for a long time. So this steam deck is an insta buy for me.

tomaskafka 5y ago

I believe it's more about gaming on sofa than gaming on train.

BatteryMountain 5y ago

I intend to buy and use it as a mobile workstation for programming, since it has a x86 chip, 16Gb Ram, Linux-compatible gfx chip, decent amount of storage. Basically this will fill the void left by the Nokia N900 for a lot of us. It being able to run steam/games is secondary for me. Or, if AMD would please get on with it and release a small form factor like the Intel Nuc, that would be great. But this device does have a screen attached to it and a battery, so it would work fine as a nuc for me. Super excited!